It's a Manhole Cover Mandala Monday?

Yes! Well, sort of. Today's pair of mandala cards were built around a piece of carstock I had used to blot off one of the fun geometric Dina Wakley Coaster Stencils I used for my Ranger Liquid Pearls Tutorial last month, and though the shimmery, glittery pattern was not perfect, it was too pretty to throw away, so I decided to draw on top of it with my Letter It Fineliners. Then I smooshed some Archival Ink on top (Aubergine and Beach Cruiser, diluted with a spritz of rubbing alcohol) and finally I double matted both cards and sewed around the edges.

Journal Cover

I've been working off and on in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger for several months, but I hadn't gotten around to decorating the cover... until NOW! 

Of course I raided all of my favorite Dina Wakley MEdia goodies: Fly High Stamps, Collage Sparks, Transparencies, Typed Ledgers and Collage Paper; not to mention a bit of Marine Gloss Spray mixed with White Gesso, which added color to the tissue and transparency pieces as well as adhering them to the journal cover.

And now it's even more inspiring to work INSIDE the journal, so I think I will!

More Leftovers? Yes, Please!

We're still endeavoring to use up some of our (crafty) Holiday Leftovers at Jingle Belles and if, like Stephanie and I, you have envelopes full of extra diecuts, little stacks of pre-embossed backgrounds or offcuts of patterned paper too pretty to throw away, you should probably join us!

Periodically, I get in the mood to make these sort of quiltish, paper-pieced strip backgrounds, so I'll make a bunch, use a few, put the rest aside, and... forget all about them, lol. So in a way, this is a story about DOUBLE leftovers, because the background itself was made from offcut strips; and then it, too, became a leftover! On top of the background I've got a blue patterned paper offcut from last week's card; some poinsettias embossed with Ranger's Red Glitter Embossing Powder; the last three brads from an ancient My Mind's Eye brad set; and a glossy red metallic Cut-plorations' Jingle Bells diecut. I added all of the above to a white A6 card, machine-stitched around the whole thing et voila!

Visit Jingle Belles to see the Holiday Leftovers Readers' Gallery and link your own masterpiece!

Books. Cats.

The new (adorable!) Eyelet Outlet Black Cat Brads are not just for Halloween, they add feline festiveness to any card and can be found peeking around stamped or diecut corners of any description. This happy little scene also features Book Brads and Book Washi; the yellow flower from our Frog Set. 

There's a sweet bunny reading in a Green Pattern Tape armchair, which is sitting on a Strawberry Tape throw rug... stamps are from Avery Elle's Feels Like Home set, stamped in Ranger's Jet Black Archival and set atop a Wood Washi floor. The coordinating envelope also has a strip of Cat Tape.

You'll find all of the above (and so much more) in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store; and don't forget to check the Trade Show Schedule to see when the Eyelet Outlet Booth will be visiting your town this summer!

Watermelon Mandala?

It's a sweet summertime Mandala Monday with the simplest of mandalas, built from a cute patterned paper circle, punched hearts and tiny heart enamels, finished off by petals and embellishments drawn with a Letter It Fineliner and Posca paint pens.

Speaking of Watermelon: if it's as hot as New Jersey is right now where you are, like us, you are probably eating A LOT of salads? May I suggest adding this savory-sweet Watermelon Salad to your repertoire? We add tomatoes, as well... which sounds crazy... but trust me, if you even remotely enjoy watermelon and tomato separately, you'll love them together! :)

JB-24-16: Holiday Leftovers

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating Holiday Leftovers... by creating cards using all of those little leftover pieces of papers, alphabet letters, stickers, ribbon; you know, all of thosebits and bobs we've saved because they were just too lovely to throw away or recycle. It's time to retrieve those (well, a few of 'em, anyway!) and use them to make some fun holiday leftover cards. 

Here's my batch of leftovers:

As you can see, I had an already paper-pieced version of Spellbinders' Snowman Hugs die set; a background where I stamped and masked with several different Wendy Vecchi background stamps and her gorgeous Leaf Green Archival Ink; a few paper strips that had been border-punched; and the de-bossed side of a panel of green cardstock on which I had inked the em-bossed side... but then not liked it. And here's my finished card:

All I had to do to make the "leftovers" into the card was round the corners on the two panels, add one more layer of patterned paper and machine-stitch around the edges. Easy, peasy!

Be sure to head over to Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has made and then start thinking up what YOU will link up! This "Holiday Leftovers" challenge runs until the evening of Wednesday, August 14th.

Car Card, Redux

Here's another version of the "One Door Closes" card I made for an Eyelet Outlet post about a month ago. I have a few "Car Guys" on my birthday list and coincidentally, two of them happen to celebrate within a week of each other, though they've never met. This is why I always save the file when I've formatted a sentiment on the computer; I might want to revisit an awesome idea! 

In this case, it's just the sentiment and a bit of (now sadly out of print) Eyelet Outlet Tire Track Tape, with a background of actual vintage maps; mounted on a glossy black A6 card. Oh and I found an illustration of a vintage Volvo, which is personal to the recipient, and he noticed immediately. 

As you may know, I LOVE fancy giftwrapping, and here's a bit of a cheat on that score. I wrapped coordinating map paper around the gift (it's a dvd as you can probably tell) and added the card (sans envelope) to act as decoration. A bit of measuring tape twill and some twine et voila!